Wowza, I haven't updated in a while. I really have to try to stick to this updating thing. Good luck to me!
We've been in the place over a year now, and looking back on some of the posts it is interesting to see what has changed and what has stayed the same.
Change #1: The "we have plenty of storage for the two of us". Yeah about that...not so much. We have accumulated SO MUCH STUFF. I can't say no to free things because I'm afraid I will need it some day. Also, I haven't even unpacked all of the boxes yet. We are going to go through the storage room/den and get rid of a bunch of it soon hopefully...because currently my bike is in our bedroom!
Change #2: We have a dog! What. Crazy talk. She takes up a lot of room with her kennel, pen, travel crate, and bed. But she's pretty little. She has certainly aged the house a lot too. My new couch is destroyed *cry*, and shes started chewing on the baseboards... But we love her.
As for what has stayed the same: I still kill plants. I didn't even both with a herb garden this year. I tried two hanging plants, one bleeding heart type flower and one hanging strawberry plant. They both died a month ago. I've also been through 2 orchids (both housewarming gifts), a creeping vine that was supposed to be unkillable, and a basil plant that I managed to harvest most of the basil from before its untimely demise.
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Bar-B-Q's
We bought a BBQ. YAY!
It's officially summer now. Did you know it can't be summer until you have BBQ? You're learning see?
We went everywhere to find the right one. As it turns out any natural gas BBQ under $350 is the right one. Natural gas BBQ's are hard to find! And I don't think we're allowed to have propane, and since I have a NG hook-up that I technically already pay for...Why would we buy propane? But because they're hard to find that makes price shopping harder. You can buy conversion kits, but they cost at least 50$ and are hard to find for all models.
There are SO MANY OPTIONS for BBQ's. 1 burner, 2 burners, 4 burners, 100000000 burners?
Oh and would you like a side burner/element too? How about two?
Rotisserie option? Grill style? Two piece grills? Does it come with a cover? Whats the brand name? Side arms, do they fold down? Screw in?
And then you have to measure and make sure it'll fit on your balcony to leave you enough room to like... move. My manual says its suppose to be 30" from all combustible materials, so we pushed it near the non-combustible metall railing and away from the meltable siding. P.s. Your BBQ can definitly melt your siding, even if you think it's not giving off a lot of heat, move it away from the siding while cooking!
Our BBQ has 2 burners. We though we were getting 4 because the box it came in had a picture showing 4. But whatever, they put it together for us and now its been de-virginized by spicy salon fillets. OM NOM.
I'd also like to make you aware of a delicious salad that goes with everything. Its my new guilty pleasure, even though I totally hate salad and would never make it just to eat it. I would totally do that with this salad. Take it from a girl who loves butter and carbs more than life itself.
Ingrediants:
Spinach (I used the large leafed farmers market stuff, I hate the rubbery thick round ones. Lettuce works too)
Arugula (YUM, add as much or as little as you like)
Gala apple, chopped small
Candied almonds (I make a syrup with water and sugar, boil until lightly brown and add almonds in, toasting them no more than a minute. Spread on parchment paper and cool)
Mild un-aged goat cheese (LOTS)
Dressing: 1 part lemon juice, 2 parts oil, splash of orange juice, salt, pepper
Toss together. Enjoy immensely. Cry when you run out. Serve with sexy spicy Salmon fillets. Or eat it for breakfast. I won't judge. When the goat cheese mixes with the dressing on the arugula leaves, it might turn you religious.
PLANT UPDATE:
The easter lily is dead. Like, so dead. My bonzai is sort of alive. The fresh oregano is now...dried...oregano...The thyme is creeping, the basil died, but then somehow sprouted again, the sage is in love with its patch of dirt and is thriving, as is the rosemary. My tomato plant is also thriving. It's growing like CRAZY! And has blooms even. The Jalapeno is clinging on for dear life...and the cilantro dissapeared.
All in all, not half bad ;).
It's officially summer now. Did you know it can't be summer until you have BBQ? You're learning see?
We went everywhere to find the right one. As it turns out any natural gas BBQ under $350 is the right one. Natural gas BBQ's are hard to find! And I don't think we're allowed to have propane, and since I have a NG hook-up that I technically already pay for...Why would we buy propane? But because they're hard to find that makes price shopping harder. You can buy conversion kits, but they cost at least 50$ and are hard to find for all models.
There are SO MANY OPTIONS for BBQ's. 1 burner, 2 burners, 4 burners, 100000000 burners?
Oh and would you like a side burner/element too? How about two?
Rotisserie option? Grill style? Two piece grills? Does it come with a cover? Whats the brand name? Side arms, do they fold down? Screw in?
And then you have to measure and make sure it'll fit on your balcony to leave you enough room to like... move. My manual says its suppose to be 30" from all combustible materials, so we pushed it near the non-combustible metall railing and away from the meltable siding. P.s. Your BBQ can definitly melt your siding, even if you think it's not giving off a lot of heat, move it away from the siding while cooking!
Our BBQ has 2 burners. We though we were getting 4 because the box it came in had a picture showing 4. But whatever, they put it together for us and now its been de-virginized by spicy salon fillets. OM NOM.
I'd also like to make you aware of a delicious salad that goes with everything. Its my new guilty pleasure, even though I totally hate salad and would never make it just to eat it. I would totally do that with this salad. Take it from a girl who loves butter and carbs more than life itself.
Ingrediants:
Spinach (I used the large leafed farmers market stuff, I hate the rubbery thick round ones. Lettuce works too)
Arugula (YUM, add as much or as little as you like)
Gala apple, chopped small
Candied almonds (I make a syrup with water and sugar, boil until lightly brown and add almonds in, toasting them no more than a minute. Spread on parchment paper and cool)
Mild un-aged goat cheese (LOTS)
Dressing: 1 part lemon juice, 2 parts oil, splash of orange juice, salt, pepper
Toss together. Enjoy immensely. Cry when you run out. Serve with sexy spicy Salmon fillets. Or eat it for breakfast. I won't judge. When the goat cheese mixes with the dressing on the arugula leaves, it might turn you religious.
PLANT UPDATE:
The easter lily is dead. Like, so dead. My bonzai is sort of alive. The fresh oregano is now...dried...oregano...The thyme is creeping, the basil died, but then somehow sprouted again, the sage is in love with its patch of dirt and is thriving, as is the rosemary. My tomato plant is also thriving. It's growing like CRAZY! And has blooms even. The Jalapeno is clinging on for dear life...and the cilantro dissapeared.
All in all, not half bad ;).
Thursday, May 12, 2011
Gardening
I do not have a green thumb. I kill plants without even trying. Although maybe my lack of trying is why I kill plants so easily. I nearly killed a cactus once. My mother rescued it. I didn't know you could 'over water' something. "What, plants can drown?".
But for some ungodly reason I've decided to set up a garden on my balcony. Mostly because I LOVE PLANTS. They smell good, they taste good, they look good. I want to have my own private herb garden. Basil, cilantro, rosemary...MMM.
Maybe I could grow tomatoes? Or GARLIC?! Probably not.
But I didn't manage to sprout the basil and oregano. My Easter lily didn't die in the first week (lets see how it goes after a month or two), and I bought a sad looking pansy for 97 cents which I'm afraid won't make it. The tulip certainly didn't. The tulip was dead before it even got home, it just didn't know it yet. I'm a plant killer.
Wish we luck with the entire garden of mine ;)...
KB
But for some ungodly reason I've decided to set up a garden on my balcony. Mostly because I LOVE PLANTS. They smell good, they taste good, they look good. I want to have my own private herb garden. Basil, cilantro, rosemary...MMM.
Maybe I could grow tomatoes? Or GARLIC?! Probably not.
But I didn't manage to sprout the basil and oregano. My Easter lily didn't die in the first week (lets see how it goes after a month or two), and I bought a sad looking pansy for 97 cents which I'm afraid won't make it. The tulip certainly didn't. The tulip was dead before it even got home, it just didn't know it yet. I'm a plant killer.
Wish we luck with the entire garden of mine ;)...
KB
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Cleaning.
Do you know how much work a 850 sq.ft. apartment is to keep clean?
A lot.
I'm glad I don't have stairs. Or more than one floor. Or a basement. Or a lawn. Or a garage. Or a yard.
You know, when I said all of those things a few months ago in the midst of deciding to buy this place...they were on the NEGATIVES list. I'm sort of glad I don't have any of those things. Mostly because I can't afford them. But also becaaause I'm lazy.
Sure we don't have a lot of storage...but...we don't have a lot to store! We can't keep junk around because theres just no place for it. We don't need a lawnmower or a shovel or gardening supplies. We don't keep extra couches or a broken pool table or old clothes in bags in our garage, because we don't have a garage to keep them in. We have a storage locker where we plan to keep our christmas/halloween/party decorations, boxes for all our small appliances and glassware (if we decide to move someday it will be much easier with adequate boxes!), and some extra dining chairs that we will pull out when we have guests, and keep tucked away when we don't. I also will likely have room for camping equipement, a bike, my roller blades and maybe even a Warhammer table for Robin.
What else do we really need? The condo lifestyle has taught me a lesson in conservation. The 'American/Canadian' dream to live in a huge house on a big lot with a double car garage isn't much of a dream to me. More like a nightmare. I can't imagine trying to use all of that space with only two of us. We only have one car, we only need one car. A heated garage spot would be ideal but I'm okay with my outdoor spot located right in front of the lobby doors, 20 steps from my balcony. 850 sq.ft. is more than enough for us baby :).
Where do you live? What do you wish you could get rid of? Anyone out there genuinely feel too cramped in their home? I'm interested to know how different houses stack up to each other. I feel like we are lucky to have such an efficient space.
A lot.
I'm glad I don't have stairs. Or more than one floor. Or a basement. Or a lawn. Or a garage. Or a yard.
You know, when I said all of those things a few months ago in the midst of deciding to buy this place...they were on the NEGATIVES list. I'm sort of glad I don't have any of those things. Mostly because I can't afford them. But also becaaause I'm lazy.
Sure we don't have a lot of storage...but...we don't have a lot to store! We can't keep junk around because theres just no place for it. We don't need a lawnmower or a shovel or gardening supplies. We don't keep extra couches or a broken pool table or old clothes in bags in our garage, because we don't have a garage to keep them in. We have a storage locker where we plan to keep our christmas/halloween/party decorations, boxes for all our small appliances and glassware (if we decide to move someday it will be much easier with adequate boxes!), and some extra dining chairs that we will pull out when we have guests, and keep tucked away when we don't. I also will likely have room for camping equipement, a bike, my roller blades and maybe even a Warhammer table for Robin.
What else do we really need? The condo lifestyle has taught me a lesson in conservation. The 'American/Canadian' dream to live in a huge house on a big lot with a double car garage isn't much of a dream to me. More like a nightmare. I can't imagine trying to use all of that space with only two of us. We only have one car, we only need one car. A heated garage spot would be ideal but I'm okay with my outdoor spot located right in front of the lobby doors, 20 steps from my balcony. 850 sq.ft. is more than enough for us baby :).
Where do you live? What do you wish you could get rid of? Anyone out there genuinely feel too cramped in their home? I'm interested to know how different houses stack up to each other. I feel like we are lucky to have such an efficient space.
Monday, April 25, 2011
Homemade Pita Chips
Want to save a little money on groceries? I do. I find the easiest way to do this in my neighborhood is to buy things in large quantities. Only problem is having just two people in a household (even two food lovers) is hardly enough to justify buying "in bulk". Tings like canned or dried goods I don't mind so much because they can sit in my pantry for months without rotting or going stale. Perishable items however...
Items like chicken breast. And pita bread. My super large family oriented Superstore located approximately .025 km from my front door has a very limited selection of chicken breast. you can buy two incely sized ones for 12$ (blood curdling scream) OR a pack of 5 for $20. Normally I buy the 2 pack, because honestly we cant afford chicken much anyways, its a treat and I don't like it sitting around in my freezer. I broke that rule the other day because I needed skin-on bone-in chicken breasts for a recipe. Lo and behold...they didn't sell them in two packs. I had to buy the 5er. Annoying but whatever. It saved me a bit of money a nd now I have 3 individually wrapped and frozen chicken breasts in my freezer if I ever need them :).
Now the pitas are a different story. They offer a 4 packand a 16 pack at my store. The 16 pack is only twice as much as the 4 pack (figure that one out). and the 4 pack is tooooo small for us anyways. They're gone in two days! an 8 pack would be ideal but since the 16 is so cheap we decided to buy it. Now after a week of chowing down on these things, they went stale. They don't freeze well and are hard to chew once they stale up.
INSERT R'S FABULOUS IDEA HERE.
He made pita chips. Take a stack of 8 or so pitas and chop them up into squares, add a drizzle (literally a drizzle. You don't need very much at all) of canola oil or another high heat tolerant oil (not olive oil) and sprinkle with seasoning of choice. R put Cavenders Greek seasoning on half, and salt, pepper and cayenne on the other half. I can't have the cayenne ones because their too spicy...but the Cavenders (in there MSG goodness) are delicious. I was amazed at how little oil and seasoning they need to taste good. The pitas crisp up so well and taste so good even without any seasoning at all! And they are much cheap (and less greasy) than the store bought pita chips :). Try it sometime!
KB
Items like chicken breast. And pita bread. My super large family oriented Superstore located approximately .025 km from my front door has a very limited selection of chicken breast. you can buy two incely sized ones for 12$ (blood curdling scream) OR a pack of 5 for $20. Normally I buy the 2 pack, because honestly we cant afford chicken much anyways, its a treat and I don't like it sitting around in my freezer. I broke that rule the other day because I needed skin-on bone-in chicken breasts for a recipe. Lo and behold...they didn't sell them in two packs. I had to buy the 5er. Annoying but whatever. It saved me a bit of money a nd now I have 3 individually wrapped and frozen chicken breasts in my freezer if I ever need them :).
Now the pitas are a different story. They offer a 4 packand a 16 pack at my store. The 16 pack is only twice as much as the 4 pack (figure that one out). and the 4 pack is tooooo small for us anyways. They're gone in two days! an 8 pack would be ideal but since the 16 is so cheap we decided to buy it. Now after a week of chowing down on these things, they went stale. They don't freeze well and are hard to chew once they stale up.
INSERT R'S FABULOUS IDEA HERE.
He made pita chips. Take a stack of 8 or so pitas and chop them up into squares, add a drizzle (literally a drizzle. You don't need very much at all) of canola oil or another high heat tolerant oil (not olive oil) and sprinkle with seasoning of choice. R put Cavenders Greek seasoning on half, and salt, pepper and cayenne on the other half. I can't have the cayenne ones because their too spicy...but the Cavenders (in there MSG goodness) are delicious. I was amazed at how little oil and seasoning they need to taste good. The pitas crisp up so well and taste so good even without any seasoning at all! And they are much cheap (and less greasy) than the store bought pita chips :). Try it sometime!
KB
Thursday, April 21, 2011
A Continuation and Some Progress
So we're on week two without internet now. Thankfully we only have to wait until Thursday to watch trashy TV both on our TV's and our laptops. This no TV no internet thing makes us both extremely productive and extremely bored. Mostly it makes R and me very irritable. My only guilty pleasure is in thinking that at least having far less distractions IN the house, will motivate R to find a job ASAP. Does that make me a bad girlfriend?
Anyways.
On a more useful subject, here are somethings you may want to consider to either buy (If this is the first time on your own) or bring with you from your old place to your new place. If you already have these things, I would highly suggest putting them all in one box and having that as the first box you bring over and unpack. Trust me, I know this from personal (and very recent experiance).
1. Toilet paper. Seriously. If you don't live by a 24h store this is especially key. Particularily if you are going to be staying there the first night. Waking up at 4am with a full bladder and not a stitch of the stuff in your house leaves you with very few (and mostly disturbing) options.
2. Pillows! Yes, I did almost forget to bring them.
3. Towels. Because otherwise your morning shower will end with you using a blowdryer for something its not meant for.
4. A PLUNGER. I'm speaking to my fellow 1 bathroom (1 toilet) apartment owners here. Especially if you say, "We've been pretty lucky, I just realized we don't have a plunger, haha! Toilets don't get clogged that much anyways, we won't need one." the night before. Needless to say...we have a plunger now.
5. Wash cloth for dishes, dish soap, dishwasher soap, hand soap, and laundry soap. So pretty much just SOAP in general. Sure you could go a couple days without laundry soap, we did. We even went without hand soap (just using the dish soap). Our new appliances came with 4 uses of very expensive pre-packaged dish soap which we used up before buying more (cheaper) soap. The dish soap is important though if you plan on eating ever. Because your appliances may or may not be hooked up yet, and if you have a small group of people (like me...theres just 2) you will not need the dishwasher for much. You can use it to pre-wash dishes, wipe down counters and even clean your bathroom if it needs it.
6. Dish towel(s). See above. You gots to dry stuff too y'know.
7. Front door mat. This may seem like a frivolous item to put in your "important stuff" box, but in our case it was necessary for our sanity. This is mostly because we opted for hardwood instead of carpet as our standard flooring and they would not let us cut it off and put lino in the entranceway (like they did with the carpet). Moving stuff in and out in the snow and muck would've ruined our floors without the entrance mat. SIDE NOTE: I graduated with a degree in Interior Design and spent one of my summers as a student in a hardwood flooring showroom. Rule one - don't put hardwood anywhere that it will come into prolonged contact with moisture. Obviously most people don't put it in there bathrooms for this reason, it will swell under the moisture and heat, and it will cup, ruining your beautiful floors. Entranceways should be a hearty, moisture resistant, scratch resistant, easy to clean surface because it is a high traffic area where we bring all our outside grime inside. Hardwood may be easier to clean than carpet, but it still not scratch resistant or moisture resistant. NEVER put carpet in an entryway if you can avoid it. Hardwood and laminate being second on the list of don'ts, and tile or lino being top of my list of do's. We also were forced into hardwood in the kitchen which is so not ideal. End rant.
8. Mugs. Now this one is sort of a personal one. Mugs are very important fo Robin and I as we both have a fair bit of family who live within 10 minutes drive, not to mention quite a few friends who not only enjoy, but expect...tea. We forgot our mugs the first day. My friend Krystyn had to drink out of the one Carleton University mug R had brought and his sister Riki had to drink out of a travel cup. We're classy. We have mugs now.
9. "Pancake flipper". Some people call them spatulas, I call spatulas "spatulas". I called flippers pancake flippers. I don't know why. I'd like to see you try to make breakfast in the new frying pan you just bought, without one. P.S. Dollar stores are life savers.
10. A chairs or chairs. If you do not yet have furniture, OR you are moving in in stages and have not brought anything other than your mattress over and plan to stay the night...bring a chair. Where will you sit? I know it sounds stupidly obvious, but you forget about this stuff!!!
Thats about it for now I guess. Enjoy your weekends people :).
Anyways.
On a more useful subject, here are somethings you may want to consider to either buy (If this is the first time on your own) or bring with you from your old place to your new place. If you already have these things, I would highly suggest putting them all in one box and having that as the first box you bring over and unpack. Trust me, I know this from personal (and very recent experiance).
1. Toilet paper. Seriously. If you don't live by a 24h store this is especially key. Particularily if you are going to be staying there the first night. Waking up at 4am with a full bladder and not a stitch of the stuff in your house leaves you with very few (and mostly disturbing) options.
2. Pillows! Yes, I did almost forget to bring them.
3. Towels. Because otherwise your morning shower will end with you using a blowdryer for something its not meant for.
4. A PLUNGER. I'm speaking to my fellow 1 bathroom (1 toilet) apartment owners here. Especially if you say, "We've been pretty lucky, I just realized we don't have a plunger, haha! Toilets don't get clogged that much anyways, we won't need one." the night before. Needless to say...we have a plunger now.
5. Wash cloth for dishes, dish soap, dishwasher soap, hand soap, and laundry soap. So pretty much just SOAP in general. Sure you could go a couple days without laundry soap, we did. We even went without hand soap (just using the dish soap). Our new appliances came with 4 uses of very expensive pre-packaged dish soap which we used up before buying more (cheaper) soap. The dish soap is important though if you plan on eating ever. Because your appliances may or may not be hooked up yet, and if you have a small group of people (like me...theres just 2) you will not need the dishwasher for much. You can use it to pre-wash dishes, wipe down counters and even clean your bathroom if it needs it.
6. Dish towel(s). See above. You gots to dry stuff too y'know.
7. Front door mat. This may seem like a frivolous item to put in your "important stuff" box, but in our case it was necessary for our sanity. This is mostly because we opted for hardwood instead of carpet as our standard flooring and they would not let us cut it off and put lino in the entranceway (like they did with the carpet). Moving stuff in and out in the snow and muck would've ruined our floors without the entrance mat. SIDE NOTE: I graduated with a degree in Interior Design and spent one of my summers as a student in a hardwood flooring showroom. Rule one - don't put hardwood anywhere that it will come into prolonged contact with moisture. Obviously most people don't put it in there bathrooms for this reason, it will swell under the moisture and heat, and it will cup, ruining your beautiful floors. Entranceways should be a hearty, moisture resistant, scratch resistant, easy to clean surface because it is a high traffic area where we bring all our outside grime inside. Hardwood may be easier to clean than carpet, but it still not scratch resistant or moisture resistant. NEVER put carpet in an entryway if you can avoid it. Hardwood and laminate being second on the list of don'ts, and tile or lino being top of my list of do's. We also were forced into hardwood in the kitchen which is so not ideal. End rant.
8. Mugs. Now this one is sort of a personal one. Mugs are very important fo Robin and I as we both have a fair bit of family who live within 10 minutes drive, not to mention quite a few friends who not only enjoy, but expect...tea. We forgot our mugs the first day. My friend Krystyn had to drink out of the one Carleton University mug R had brought and his sister Riki had to drink out of a travel cup. We're classy. We have mugs now.
9. "Pancake flipper". Some people call them spatulas, I call spatulas "spatulas". I called flippers pancake flippers. I don't know why. I'd like to see you try to make breakfast in the new frying pan you just bought, without one. P.S. Dollar stores are life savers.
10. A chairs or chairs. If you do not yet have furniture, OR you are moving in in stages and have not brought anything other than your mattress over and plan to stay the night...bring a chair. Where will you sit? I know it sounds stupidly obvious, but you forget about this stuff!!!
Thats about it for now I guess. Enjoy your weekends people :).
Friday, April 8, 2011
Episode 1.5 - Getting Jacked-in
When I lived in Ottawa I shared a townhouse with a number of people. At one point our humble 3 bedroom college home housed 7 people. Figure that one out. All in all though, I loved it. There was always someone home to chat to, which, being far from everyone I had grown up with and all of my family...was wonderful. Also I could bake to my hearts content because there was always someone there to eat it! I also got to strentch and improve my baking skills as one of my friends ate a fairly strict Kosher diet and the other had wheat allergies (Which my mother, and my boyfriends sister have. As well as having another brother, sister-in-law and two nieces who are celiac. Whats a baker to do???)
Tangent.
Anyways. Our wonderful house 'administrator' (for lack of a better word) was my great friend B. She handled the rent collection, the garbage schedule, the noisy neighbors, the bills and the roomates. This is because she is awesome. Also because she is a multitasking, organized, determined, hardworking, energetic person. I on the other hand, am quite useless. Or was. Or is. I am also lazy. And melancoly. And Melodramatic. and Lethargic. And kind to myself.
To this end I never learned much about dealing with stupid internet/TV/phone companies. Also in Ottawa there was not much choice. You could choose company BLUe or company RED. Not much competition. Needless to say we tried both and they both sucked equally. The service for company BLUE was slow at best. We didn't recieve our modem for 3 weeks, which as students meant we had to steal the neighbors internet in order to get any work done after 9pm when the classrooms closed. And we did a LOT of work after 9pm. Most of it actually, being students who had afternoon classes and slept until 11am if we could help it.
When I moved back to Edmonton and bought my condo, I didn't think much about until I moved in last Monday. I then realized I had no internet or TV to spend my free time on....I had to unpack! Lame. After this realization I quickly called my local internet/TV/ and home phone providers. In Alberta we have 4 choices. Company BLUE and RED of course, and then also GREEN and WHITE. My building as it turns out...only supports GREEN and WHITE for TV as I have digital cable hook ups and its something to do with the service. Excited to try these new companies with hopes they would suck less I called WHITE who had left me my very first piece of mail proclaiming a deal to cheap to be believed. As it turns out this deal had expired several months before I had possession. How did that happen? Never the less in my eagerness to get the internets...I order JUST internet from them with hopes I would have it for a month and cancel if I want to bundle my services. They would come out the next day to install, how kind!
Of course I had to call around to see what other deals they had. I googled company GREEN at work and found another deal too good to be true. Once I called them, it turned out that I had a special deal for my service area which was even BETTER! Hooray! Edmonton rocks! I can afford a PVR! But, oh...They can't install until the end of next week. Okay no worries, I can *gulp* find something to do. Maybe i'll *eep* unpack some more...
I've been a week without internet at home now (not counting my phone which is already over the monthly limit), so I am writing this at my work now (don't judge). Today was supposed to be the day they installed but instead, two days ago, they called and a very...young...sounding person left a message telling me that "um, your service has had to um be moved um to a week from now um because of your address mumble mumble should have been confirmed with you earlier this week um it will be an all day appointment on a weekday um".
*RAGE*. Two weeks without internet? WHAT THE HELL?! Hope thats okay? Why would moving my install date a week be ok?! Why did you have to say um 15 times to make matters worse?! Also. I have to take A WHOLE DAY OFF SO YOU CAN INSTALL MY INTERNET?!
Okay, well, I don't. My BF is living with me and currently does not have a job so he could stay. BUT THEY DON"T KNOW THAT. Thats the stupidest thing i've ever heard. The install only takes 3 hours. But I would've had to take a whole day off my job, costing twice as much as I would be paying for internet a month. What is BF gets a job? Huh?
Needless to say i'm in a rage. I've called multiple times, they said the manager would talk to the manager and call me back. He didnt. So I called again. They tell me theres nothing they can do, heres a free month of service! But only on your TV bill. Well thats just great. A whole month. Yipee. I'm tempted to go back to company WHITE but there prices are so much more and I don't get a PVR. And I want a PVR. What happened to proffesional courtesy? What happened to customer service? Nothing apperantly. As my BF, my friends, and my father all say: They all suck equally, so just go with one and suck it up. What do I do? Can I keep calling and demand more service? Should I switch companies? Or should I just suck it up and unpack for another week?
To be continued.
KB
Tangent.
Anyways. Our wonderful house 'administrator' (for lack of a better word) was my great friend B. She handled the rent collection, the garbage schedule, the noisy neighbors, the bills and the roomates. This is because she is awesome. Also because she is a multitasking, organized, determined, hardworking, energetic person. I on the other hand, am quite useless. Or was. Or is. I am also lazy. And melancoly. And Melodramatic. and Lethargic. And kind to myself.
To this end I never learned much about dealing with stupid internet/TV/phone companies. Also in Ottawa there was not much choice. You could choose company BLUe or company RED. Not much competition. Needless to say we tried both and they both sucked equally. The service for company BLUE was slow at best. We didn't recieve our modem for 3 weeks, which as students meant we had to steal the neighbors internet in order to get any work done after 9pm when the classrooms closed. And we did a LOT of work after 9pm. Most of it actually, being students who had afternoon classes and slept until 11am if we could help it.
When I moved back to Edmonton and bought my condo, I didn't think much about until I moved in last Monday. I then realized I had no internet or TV to spend my free time on....I had to unpack! Lame. After this realization I quickly called my local internet/TV/ and home phone providers. In Alberta we have 4 choices. Company BLUE and RED of course, and then also GREEN and WHITE. My building as it turns out...only supports GREEN and WHITE for TV as I have digital cable hook ups and its something to do with the service. Excited to try these new companies with hopes they would suck less I called WHITE who had left me my very first piece of mail proclaiming a deal to cheap to be believed. As it turns out this deal had expired several months before I had possession. How did that happen? Never the less in my eagerness to get the internets...I order JUST internet from them with hopes I would have it for a month and cancel if I want to bundle my services. They would come out the next day to install, how kind!
Of course I had to call around to see what other deals they had. I googled company GREEN at work and found another deal too good to be true. Once I called them, it turned out that I had a special deal for my service area which was even BETTER! Hooray! Edmonton rocks! I can afford a PVR! But, oh...They can't install until the end of next week. Okay no worries, I can *gulp* find something to do. Maybe i'll *eep* unpack some more...
I've been a week without internet at home now (not counting my phone which is already over the monthly limit), so I am writing this at my work now (don't judge). Today was supposed to be the day they installed but instead, two days ago, they called and a very...young...sounding person left a message telling me that "um, your service has had to um be moved um to a week from now um because of your address mumble mumble should have been confirmed with you earlier this week um it will be an all day appointment on a weekday um".
*RAGE*. Two weeks without internet? WHAT THE HELL?! Hope thats okay? Why would moving my install date a week be ok?! Why did you have to say um 15 times to make matters worse?! Also. I have to take A WHOLE DAY OFF SO YOU CAN INSTALL MY INTERNET?!
Okay, well, I don't. My BF is living with me and currently does not have a job so he could stay. BUT THEY DON"T KNOW THAT. Thats the stupidest thing i've ever heard. The install only takes 3 hours. But I would've had to take a whole day off my job, costing twice as much as I would be paying for internet a month. What is BF gets a job? Huh?
Needless to say i'm in a rage. I've called multiple times, they said the manager would talk to the manager and call me back. He didnt. So I called again. They tell me theres nothing they can do, heres a free month of service! But only on your TV bill. Well thats just great. A whole month. Yipee. I'm tempted to go back to company WHITE but there prices are so much more and I don't get a PVR. And I want a PVR. What happened to proffesional courtesy? What happened to customer service? Nothing apperantly. As my BF, my friends, and my father all say: They all suck equally, so just go with one and suck it up. What do I do? Can I keep calling and demand more service? Should I switch companies? Or should I just suck it up and unpack for another week?
To be continued.
KB
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